Hindessa Abdul is a contributor to Ethiopian news web sites and writes about media issues in Ethiopia.

A couple of weeks ago, newspaper editor Dawit Kebede,
an International Press Freedom award winner, fled
Ethiopia. Sadly, Dawit's Awramba Times
is the latest in a long list of Amharic-language private publications to vanish
from the market following the incarceration or flight into exile of their editors.

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Newspaper satirist Abebe Tolla, better known as Abé Tokichaw,
fled Ethiopia fearing imprisonment in retaliation for critical news
commentaries, media reported
this week. His exit was overshadowed by the trial of opposition figures and
journalists on charges of terrorism.

In an interview
he gave to U.S.-based Addis Neger Online from an undisclosed location, Abebe said
he fled the country because security agents threatened to throw him in prison.
He did not even bid farewell to family members. Abebe alleged that state
security agents pressured him for months to become an informant at his
newspaper, the critical Amharic weekly Feteh.